Try Amazon first?

Rhush · Oct 19, 2011

I'm am about to self publish my novel through BookLocker, but I had a thought. With all this talk about Amazon Kindle being free, should I try out my novel as an e book there before paying the other site? BL will put out my ms. in POD as well as e pub it on several sites (including Amazon) for a fee of about $320 (since I already have my own cover design). AND... if by some chance my novel does well on Amazon Kindle and I want to go to POD, is this an option with them? And if not, am I then able to go POD through BL? I've tried to do my homework on self publishing, but I'm still pretty green and I'm drowning a bit in all the options. I'd appreciate any help. Thanks!

Kriven · Oct 19, 2011

Forget Book Locker and set up your eBook and PoD yourself, for free.

CreateSpace - Puts your PoD on Amazon.

valeriec80 · Oct 19, 2011

What Kriven said.

Publishing with Amazon's Createspace or Kindle program is nonexclusive, meaning you still own the rights and can publish it other places as well.

Rhush · Oct 19, 2011

Great! Thanks guys. So Createspace has no fees... not even for POD? What about ISBN? I just feel like a hidden cost is lingering somewhere.

valeriec80 · Oct 19, 2011

Createspace offers you a free ISBN--the catch is that the book will be listed as published by Createspace, not you. You also can't take that ISBN with you if you decide to pull the book and publish it elsewhere. You'll have to give it a new ISBN. If you own an ISBN already, you're not required to use Createspace's ISBN. However, you can't use an ISBN you bought from someplace else (like Lulu or something). It has to be one you bought directly from Bowker.

I always spring for the ProPlan. It costs $40 per book and allows you to price your book lower and gets your author copies cheaper. But it's optional.

So, yeah. Createspace can be free. Of course, you have to do all the work yourself. You have to layout every page of your book and convert it to a PDF file, etc.

Rhush · Oct 19, 2011

Ok I see. And the $40 is certainly worth it. Especially in comparison to the $320 I was looking at. My only concern is that I did look at Lulu for a while, but was kind of overwhelmed by the formatting of EVERYTHING myself. Maybe I just didnt have the hang of the system. I don't know. Maybe Createspace is easier. I hope! Thanks again for all your help

Rhush · Oct 19, 2011

Oh... and another question. I actually feel a little dumb asking this because I'm generally pretty versed in formatting but how to I format my ms. to PDF? I've never had to do that one before :Hammer:

merrihiatt · Oct 19, 2011

If you have Word 2010, you can choose the "save as" option and then choose PDF from the options available. I just used CreateSpace to self-publish several books. There is a learning curve, but if you follow their guidelines, it won't take you long to get the hang of it. If I can be of help, let me know. I've also formatted documents for Smashwords and Kindle Direct Publishing (they each want things tweaked a little bit differently).

merrihiatt · Oct 19, 2011

One more thing, CreateSpace has templates that you can download, so formatting your document is even easier. You choose the trim size for your book, then CS will place the template for that trim size on the screen and you can download it with or without text.

Alessandra Kelley · Oct 19, 2011

A close relation tried Lulu, but found the prices they charged for books to be really excessive. And there was no way to know what the price would be until the books were committed and published. Even shaving the author's share to razor-thin, the books cost twice what they should have.

Publishing on Amazon for the Kindle is free (you have to take care of the ISBN). Formatting is not that hard.

shaldna · Oct 20, 2011

Rhush said:
Oh... and another question. I actually feel a little dumb asking this because I'm generally pretty versed in formatting but how to I format my ms. to PDF? I've never had to do that one before

There are templates that you can download to use in word for each of the trim sizes. You literally format the book exactly as you want to see it on the page.

edit: Ah, merri beat me to it.

Rhush · Oct 20, 2011

Thanks so much for your help guys! I'm a real newbie at this side of things and appreciate everything

Macca · Oct 21, 2011

Thanks too. I'm about to travel this road in the next few weeks. Cost wise, I think CreateSpace looks the best value.

FOTSGreg · Oct 21, 2011

If you don't have MS Word 2010 you can also download a free program called CutePDF off the web. It virtually "prints" a pdf of your file, sits in the background until you need it, and did I say it's free?

I've used it several times for a number of projects.

In addition, CreateSpace is going to ask for your cover image to be in pdf format. This will require a jpeg or gif to pdf converter. You can also find a free converter online. I forgot the name of the one that I've used before though.

Rhush · Oct 21, 2011

Thanks!

brianjanuary · Nov 6, 2011

I would definitely put your book out in Kindle format, as well as epub, and any other format you can find!

Brian January
http://amzn.com/B005WM0HN6
http://amzn.com/B006QCZF3S

Try Amazon first?

Rhush

Slave to the metal

Kriven

valeriec80

Got the hang of it, here

Rhush

Slave to the metal

valeriec80

Got the hang of it, here

Rhush

Slave to the metal

Rhush

Slave to the metal

merrihiatt

Writing! Writing! Writing!

merrihiatt

Writing! Writing! Writing!

Alessandra Kelley

Sophipygian

shaldna

The cake is a lie. But still cake.

Rhush

Slave to the metal

Macca

FOTSGreg

Today is your last day.

Rhush

Slave to the metal

brianjanuary